Tag Archives: language

Technically the Philippines has only one name–the Philippines. In some ways it is as complicated as the Netherlands, if not more, since Holland (even if it is just a region) is also used to mean the whole country of the Netherlands. Who knows if it has also suffered some spelling ‘butcherization’ (lol-don’t ask me) as much as the Philippines. Also, ask WiKi…if you want to have the precise info.

Manila, just like Holland, is well-known enough as much as the country itself, but not to mean the whole country as well. Probably most people recognize Manila for its pollution and Philippines for its corruption (tongue-in-cheek: coming from a Filipina and a ManileNa by choice who is a Negrense by birth…from Negros Occidental, which brings the question shouldn’t we Negrense be called _______ instead?).

Somewhere in this blog I’ve touched on this topic as Bob Martin’s mentioned the different ways the Philippines is being referred to, which could be ‘touchy’ from PI to Phils [as well as the shortened ‘Pinas to most Filipinos] and other spelling or understandable misspellings: Phillipines (named after King Philip but there’s a Phillip variation), Phillippines (there’s a double somewhere), Philippine (nevermind the 7,107 islands), and many more (not counting typographical errors) that possibly stuck to one’s memory…after all, it’s not just the U.S. or U.S.A. It’s good enough that somebody even recognizes it as a part of the globe.

Consequently, Filipinos are thought to be Philipinos, Filippinos, etc. other than ‘Pinoys‘. Let’s not forget that the language is the lackluster Pilipino that is even outshined (yes, outshone) by Tagalog. One thing though that I’m very particular…my young nieces and nephews are always reminded: if I can’t make them speak Pilipino, they should know the intricate differences of the basic identity of their parents’ country of origin–the Philippines!

Added spelling [or misspellings] of Filipino variation I just came across that I haven’t included in my previous list: Philippino! This one makes a lot of sense to me; after all we are from the Philippines. I understand that ph and f are sound variants…but why in the same family of words? I should probably delve further into this nonsense in my ESL blog. Are Filipinos that complicated animals? Opssss! Hhssss! Grrrlll!